There is plenty of pain to the MacKinnon Report on Alberta’s path to a balanced budget, but none of it is surprising.

This is the platform the United Conservative Party ran on in the election.

While none of the the recommendations made by former Saskatchewan finance minster and independent auditor Janice MacKinnon are ratified or yet approved, the UCP and their members cannot be shocked at the outcome. She has headed up similar studies for other conservative governments in Manitoba in 2017, and in 2014 she led a federal Economic Advisory Council to provide advice on fiscal, economic and financial issues under then prime minister Stephen Harper. She literally wrote the book on government austerity in 2003, Minding the Public Purse, which recounts the cost-cutting measures taken by the Saskatchewan government in the ’90s.

The provincial government is following their checklist of promises they made to a ‘T,’ this latest report — and the budget rumoured to be finished in October — continues to reflect this.

Promises they have already hit on include, a review of the NDP curriculum overhaul (which actually started under the previous PC government), creating a ministry to cut red tape, launched a constitutional challenge on carbon tax, and they are currently in the process of reworking the farm safety law.

Their promise of a balanced budget and a surplus of $714 million by 2023 was foundational to their campaign.

There is also no way this was going to come on the backs of financial investment alone.

Unfortunately, much of this will likely still come on the backs of the taxpayers, it is just the executioner will be different.

The province and Ottawa has, over the past number of years, off loaded more and more financial responsibility on to the municipalities — the cities, towns and counties. At the same time, they are sending less money back to the municipalities to cover many of these essential programs and projects.

This is not going to change anytime soon, and has the potential to get even more burdensome for the local governments.

Currently the municipalities receive a large chunk of funding from two provincial sources, the Municipal Sustainability Initiative, which this year sent $591 million in funding to municipalities, and the city charter agreement, which sends $500 million to Edmonton and Calgary per annum.

MSI is set to expire in 2021-22 and will shrink each year until then. There is no funding agreement in place to replace it. Meanwhile, there is concern the government could cancel the city charter agreement.

These concerns are born out of the MacKinnon study when it says neither the charter nor the MSI allocate municipal capital grants “in line with provincial goals and priorities.”

These goals were not stated.

This has been arguably Parkland County Mayor Rod Shaigec’s biggest concern, especially when coupled with the expedited coal phase out, despite the provincial government’s insistence that a future agreement will be worked out.

This shifting of burden allows the UCP to move a target from their back on to the municipalities. To even come close to maintaining current infrastructure and service levels on a shoestring budget there will be potentially hefty raises in your property tax.

Despite consecutive years of reduction in operating expenses and moving to a priority based budget for this coming year, it was recommended to County council by administration to not completely disregard the idea of a seven per cent increase in property taxes in 2020. This would come with further belt tightening. To be clear, nothing has been decided or announced and will not be presented until December.

On the provincial level, we have been through this before with the Ralph Klein-era cutbacks on which he built his own dynasty. With a growing population, a still crumbling infrastructure — pegged at a $35 billion deficit when the NDP took over — and an economy that is still struggling to get back on track — 14,000 full-time jobs shed in July — this could hurt even more than it did 25 years ago.

The government has promised a whole new way of looking at how they budget, including more private partnerships and options on health care and infrastructure. Great. The model of continually digging a deeper hole is not sustainable.

But when the blood starts spilling out, we need to remember this is what we as a populace voted for.